January 16, 2014

That Pussy Riot – Yuri Kozyrev Shoot: Fashion as Defiance

It looks like the propaganda battle between Putin and Pussy Riot has germinated the ultimate merger of politics and protest, celebrity and fashion. Back on the streets after serving 21 months of a two year prison sentence for performing a protest song, band members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, in alignment with NOOR’s gifted photographer, Yuri Kozyrev, use youth, beauty, glamour, shopping, culture, earnest conversation, dancing, landmark cityscape, citizen journalism, social freedom, of course, and new glossy pastel iPhone 5c’s in TIME’s almost-frolicking slideshow to refashion activism as allure.

As target, antagonist but otherwise classic backdrop, the Kremlin must regret letting go of that prison garb. Because what signifies uniform submission has here been turned inside out, the woman using the garments for martyrdom credit and the material of repudiation. The jacket as conscience couture, resistance is now what’s in vogue.